The ability to have consumer electronic devices wirelessly communicate with each other has gained increased popularity due to the convenience, ease of use, flexibility, and low-power attributes it provides to consumers. One particularly popular attribute, is the capability for wireless-enabled consumer devices to communicate with cellular-based telephones (e.g., smartphones) or other communication devices. As a result, wireless communications based on technologies, such as, for example, BlueTooth, Wi-Fi, Near Field Communications (NFC), etc. are increasingly incorporated in a wide array of consumer electronic devices.
In some cases, however, wireless communications, such as BlueTooth, occurring between a wireless-enabled device and a smartphone (or the like) are routed directly through the operating system of the smartphone, thereby making smartphones vulnerable to malware attacks, phishing, and sniffing. While there has been an effort to provide encryption modules that provide some protection from such attacks, these modules may be suboptimal as they are extrinsic to the smartphones and do not exploit the hardware and software architectural features of smartphones that may be configured to provide enhanced security.